Relational database management systems (RDBMS) typically interface with applications using a dialect of Structured Query Language (SQL). For example, an application may use SQL as a data manipulation language (DML) for adding, deleting, selecting, and/or updating records in a relational database. The application may also use SQL as a data definition language (DDL), which enables the creation, update, and deletion of tables and/or columns in the relational database. Because both DML and DDL queries can be used by malicious users to access and/or manipulate sensitive information, relational database security may be improved by detecting and responding to anomalous relational database queries that do not conform to common or legitimate database access patterns.
The approaches described in this section are approaches that could be pursued, but not necessarily approaches that have been previously conceived or pursued. Therefore, unless otherwise indicated, it should not be assumed that any of the approaches described in this section qualify as prior art merely by virtue of their inclusion in this section.